Rose Bowl is a big win for Pasadena

PASADENA, Calif. — Between tickets and T-shirts, hotels and hot dogs, college football bowl games will help generate about $1.1 billion over the next week or so for their host cities.

Nowhere is the economic impact of a bowl game and its accompanying activities felt more than Pasadena, Calif., home to the self-proclaimed "granddaddy of them all."

The Rose Bowl and the Tournament of Roses Parade is expected to pump more than $225 million into Pasadena and its surrounding cities. That's about six times the average amount generated by the nation's 28 college bowls, the Football Bowl Association reports.

At many restaurants around America, business is dead this time of year as customers fill up on home-cooked turkey or ham with relatives and friends.

But at the California Pizza Kitchen in Pasadena, "this is our busiest time of the year," general manger Jason Cockell said.

If history holds true, sales of entrees such as Peking duck pizza and chicken tequila fettuccine at Cockell's restaurant will be 30 percent higher than average this week, almost exclusively because of the Tournament of Roses events.

Bowl games are typically an economic boon for any place that agrees to host them, and their reach extends far beyond the host cities themselves.

Visitors to San Antonio's Alamo Bowl might take a day trip to Austin or neighboring Hill Country towns. Fans traveling to Miami for the Orange Bowl might spend a few extra days on South Florida's beaches.

In most parts of the country, the bowl business couldn't come at a better time.

"For the hospitality industry, it's a double win because it fills hotels and restaurants and bars at a time when they'd otherwise be dry," said Gary Stokan, president of the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, which will pump an estimated $35 million into the Atlanta economy.

The potential for that kind of windfall is why cities such as San Jose, Calif., and Boise, Idaho--not exactly known for football fanaticism, much less holiday destination spots--have gotten into the bowl business.

The boom in bowls means nearly half of NCAA Division 1-A football teams now can expect an invitation to postseason play. There are so many bowls that there almost weren't enough teams meeting the six-win threshold to qualify this year.

In the bowl business, though, Pasadena is special and unique--and not just because of its huge economic payoff.

It might be unfathomable to hard-core football fans from the University of Texas and the University of Michigan, but here, football isn't the most important part of New Year's Day.

"The parade is a bigger deal," Mitch Dorger, chief executive of the Tournament of Roses Association, said matter-of-factly.